Back in the dark days of computing, that is before the arrival of hard drives, cheap mass storage and cheap memory, I used to run a tech support department. I used to lecture software operations people on triage, support levels and optimal staffing levels. In short, I pioneered many of the standard business practices in use today. Except that back then, tech support departments were filled with geeky computer nerds who knew something, instead of script readers. Which is why I today, instead of posing on the fine police work that led to the confession of one Steven Bertuglia of Mount Sinai, N.Y., who is alleged to have robbed two Norwalk banks, or posting about the $100 million projected for infrastructure work just for the Wall Street/West ave. redevelopment projects, I instead spent 2 hours tapping through phone trees, getting access to online accounts which were no longer working and otherwise attempting to communicate a very simple tech support message; “you pinheads are blocking a major ISP.’ Of course earlier in the day that simple message was more technical and less confrontational.

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